Nesting type container



Jan. 17, 1956 G. A. MOORE NESTING TYPE CONTAINER Filed May 5, 1952 INVENTOR GEORGE /']RL/NG 7'0/v MOORE United States Patent G NESTING TYPE CONTAINER George Arlington Moore, New York, N. Y. Application May 3, 1952, Serial No. 285,873

7 Claims. (Cl. 229-23) This invention relates to improvements in containers made of sheet materials such as paper or aluminum and Constructed of a pair of blanks cut therefrom which are assembled together in such manner that the bottom of the container is reinforced with two-ply material and formed integrally with tapering side walls, the shape of the bottom being substantially rectangular, the side walls being marginally reinforced and blends from a rectangular shape to a round shape at the mouth of the container, the said mouth being reinforced with a marginally rolled rim por tion of the said side walls, the area across the mouth of the container being greater than across the bottom thereof.

Conventional conical shaped containers are constructed from sector shaped body blanks and circular shaped bottom discs cut from sheet material, the body blanks being usually convolutely wound two-ply for strength and the bottom disc drawn in a flanging operation, the flanged bottom part being inserted into the wound body whereby a bottom marginal portion of the body is turned inwardly and upwardly over the flange of the circular bottom the material being compressed by being acted upon with rotating tool parts, the mouth of the container being rolled with rotating tools. Usually, rotating dies are employed to holdthe container bodies during the assembly of the container. The nominal waste of sheet material in cutting the sector shaped body blanks may be up to eighteen percent and the cutting of circular discs twenty-three percent. The said conventional containers are fabricated in machinery operational stages consisting of body rolling, bottom flange drawing and final assembly of the said parts, the bottom being inserted into the body and attached thereto by rotary action of tools.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide containers which will eliminate the high percentage of waste material heretofore described and provide structural reinforcements whereby further economy in use of materials may be employed by utilizing lighter weight sheet with which to construct the container, the structure beingformed and completed in one operational machine.

Another object of the invention is to provide containers of comparable net capacity that will occupy less space than those of conventional types, the bottom of the container being reinforced and constructed integrally with the side walls, the said bottom being flat and of substantially rectangular shape, the side walls being blended from the said shape to round shape at the mouth of the container.

A further object of this invention is to provide a method of constructing containers without a rotating motion of either the material thereof or the fabricating dies and tools which form the container, thereby improving the efliciency and economy in making containers.

A still further object of the invention is to provide containers so constructed that they are produced economically by a simple method of fabrication, the containers being adapted to be utilized for dispensing hot and cold liquid drinks of various kinds and serve manyother general purposes.

'- These and other objects of the invention will be ap- 2,731,189 Patented Jan. 17, 1956 parent upon reading the following descriptive disclosure read in conjunction with the illustrative accompanying drawings, wherein;

Fig. l is a perspective view of the container,

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a first blank used in constructing the container,

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a second blank used in the construction of the container,

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view of the blanks in partial assembly relationship.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary view in cross-section of fabricating tools used in making the container showing to the left of the vertical center line, the dies and tools in position before curling of the rim and to the right of the center line the dies in position after curling of the rim,

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view in perspective of a closure adapted to the container, a portion of the wall and closure structure broken away.

Referring to Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings, the container 4 (Fig. l) is formed of a pair of blanks (Figs. 2 and 3) which are assembled together cross-wise (Fig. 4) the central portion of each blank being superimposed and secured together to form the bottom of the container, the extended wall portions of the assembled blanks being folded in side wall relationship, the said walls having marginal portions overlapping each other and secured together, the walls being blended in shape from flat surfaces adjacent the bottom to curved surfaces adjacent to and at the top of the container. The side walls terminate at the top of the container in an outwardly rolled rim which merges the assembled blank edges together in a substantially uniform and reinforced border around the mouth of the container, the bevelled ends of said marginal overlapping portions co-operating in merging said edges smoothly.

Referring more particularly to Fig. 2 there is illustrated a substantially rectangular shaped blank 5 having a central area 6 and a pair of horizontal parallel junction lines 7 and a pair of transverse junction lines 8, the said central area being connected with side flanges 9 extending outwardly of lines 7 and lateral extensions 10 projecting outwardly of each of the junction lines 8. The lateral extensions 10 include a pair of lateral side flanges 12 which merge with the flanges 9 of the central area by triangular shape notches 13 having blunt apexes 14 at each of the adjacent corners of the central area of the blank. The flanges 12 terminate with angular cut ends. The blank 5 may be provided with thermoplastic adhesive which may be printed or otheiwvise applied to selected surfaces of the blank that constitute the seam area zones or, the entire surface of the blank may be provided with thermoplastic film such as polyethylene.

The blank 15 (Fig. 3) is provided with a central wall portion 16 having parallel side edges 17 and transversely disposed parallel folding lines 18 beyond which extend lateral wall projections 19 having inwardly tapering side edges 20 terminating in the rectangular shaped marginal portions 21.

The assembling of the container consists of feeding the pre-cut blank 15 (Fig. 3) to position upon the end of a mandrel 22 (Fig. 5) having an end surface matching the central area of the blank, said mandrel may be arranged in multiples in one machine, the mandrel hav ing the form of the container. The pre-cut companion blank 5 is then fed upon the previously positioned blank in the manner shown in Fig. 4 in which position the central wall portions of each blank are secured together by the thermoplastic adhesive being activated by the application of heat and pressure thereupon. The lateral extensions 10 and 19 are folded over the exterior surface of the mandrel with the flanges 9 and 12 overlapping portions of the adjacent walls. A- chuck assembly 23 3 adapted to expand and contract and equipped with electrical heating elements 24 compresses the overlapping portion of the Walls thereby transferring to the said walls the shape of the said mandrel.- The overlapping flanges are sealed with heat and pressure which activates the film of thermoplastic adhesive on the flanges which upon solidification produces a container having a bottom integral with the side Walls.

After the pre-cut blanks are molded and adhesively seamed to. one another to form the, shape of the container, a rim is formed. The segments of the chuck as-. sembly 23 expand to move away from the surface of the formed wall of the container thereby providing clearance for the operation of curling the, top of the container t f rm h r m he urling ass mbly c mp se a ylinr cal shap d sle ve 5 in wh ch a c ling he. 2.6 is d s Posed aid di hav ng a mi ircular cavity 2 hereinh ndrel. 22 h s yl ndr cal sh pe up ar ly at the sho lde n 28. t s ppe h c l ng d e. a d pr ide a aigh Walled margin P I, n 8 to h tsp at the container wall. The curling die 2f has a straight nw d, movemen i h. u ns r ur e he t p edg o he st sid wal and roll o e a Portion thereof to orm re nf rc n rim 9 around he ou h t c n ain h sleeve 2 su rounding h urling d e moves downwardly faster in advance of the curling die 26 to conf ne and control the curling and to prevent uni controlledspreading of the Worked material.

When the blanks are assembled and folded, the side walls of the notches l3 abut each other the blunt apexcs 14 providing excess material, which material is compressed under heat and pressure to tighten securely and reinforce the corner portions of the bottom of the container, therefore the bottom is strongly reinforced with two layers of integrally secured material, the side walls being strongly reinforced with overlapping flanges secured to portions of the walls. The ends of the walls are formed into a reinforced rim around the mouth of the container. The container so constructed is produced economically and by a simple method of fabrication, the containers being adapted to be utilized for dispensing hot and cold liquid drinks of various kinds and serve many other general purposes.

The container may be adapted with a cover 39 (Fig. 6) preferably made of aluminum sheet material the thickness of which may be 0.004 inches thickness or thicker if desired. A flanged circular shaped disc fitted inside the mouth of the container, capping tools are provided to form an inner groove 31 inside the top of the container wall. Curling of the remaining portion of the cover over the rim 29 of the container forms a further reinforcement 32 to the mouth of the closed container. The ductility and workability of aluminum provides a tight closure which may be thermoplastically scaled to the wall of the container using heat and pressure and expandable grooving tools. The curling operationmay be accomplished in the same manner as described for the function of the curling die illustrated in Fig. 5. A tab 33 may be provided with which to remove the cover.

Rolls of suitable paper sheet material which may be printed and of the character and grade used in fabricating conventional containers, are fed through a blanking operation thereby providing pro-cut blanks for a series of container forming mandrels equipped with tools (Fig.

5) which shape and construct the complete container in one operation, the said operation consisting of the forming of the bottom and integrally related body walls, securing the related parts together in seam forming re lationship and forming a reinforcing rirn around the mouth of the container after which the completed container is elected from the mandrel into a nesting formation of previously ejected containers. The waste of'n aterial in making the said containers being negligible in comparison with conventional taper shaped containers.

Aluminum sheet material about 0.004 inch thickness may be employed economically with which to fabricate the improved containers, the fabricating method as described being adaptable to work such material.

I claim:

1. The herein described method of forming a cup-like container having a rectangular bottom and four side walls gradually merging upwardly into a circular mouth which comprises, placing two generally rectangular elongated blanks one across the other in cruciform relation to provide a two ply rectangular bottom wall and four wall extensions, folding the extensions upwardly to provide four flat side walls having marginal edge portions overlapping from opposite directions while confining said extensions between inner and outer surfaces causing the flat side walls gradually to merge into an open circular mouth, curling the mouth edge outwardly, and adhesively bonding the superposed bottom plies and the v r apping mar inal edges to o nsle e d t in t pe of he. centai er- 2- The method define in la m 1- in di g he step of forming a cy indr cal p r ion. defining h rcula mou h xtremity of t con a n v an h p g this cylirh drieal portion into the outward curl.

he m hQd d fine n claim 1 ludi g e eps of n oport clins h und ly 6 b a o ha i ill provide marginal edge portions disposed to overlap not onlyupstanding wall portions of the companion blank but also wall portions of the companion blank above and along the jun t e thereof wi h he t m Wall of i m panion blank, and forming notches in said outer blank margins at portions disposed to lie at thecorners of the cont mrbo t aid n ch a ng bl n ap c o sto p s nt imperi ra rne s an being efine y edge nvers n at s ch an la r a n as o e p sed 'in flush edge abutting relation. when the marginal edge per: me a e verlappe and d s v y b nd d- 4. The method defined in claim 1 including the steps of Pits-condi ioning o o the said n s i h c i ahl adhesive prior to forming the container so that the per-.-

io s inte ded o l p ncluding the t m Walls and cor er junctions h r o m y be bonded og t er i l qu d tight seam forming relationship by the application of heat nd press e 5 The method of forming a container of heat scalable sheet material having a rectangular bottom and four side wall forming portions to provide a body portion gradually merging upwardly into a circular mouth which comprises, placing two generally rectangular elongated pre-cut strips of said sheet material one across the other in cruciform relation to provide a two-ply flat rectangular bottom wall and four extensions, pressing said bottom wall portion th heat o s al th enga i g u faces. f sa t o pl s ogethe old nssai ex ens n p rdly to p o d t at fl s d wall. p rt ons having m n l dg Port on o erlapping from opposite directions while confining said extension etween i ne n ou surf c s ausing the flat side wall forming portions gradually to merge into an pen circu a m uth. h ea n a r a g Portions of the extensions to permanently secure the shape oi the Walls of said extensions and thereby provide said odypqr ou cur ng h related m h ges her ofoutwas, in un formly blen ed a ion to p d r inmen o aid m u h d augment he pe a ency of said circular shape thereof including the shape of said container.

6. A cup-like container of sheet material comprising an assembly of two pro-cut strips of said material, each of said strips being of generally elongated rectangular shape and crossed centrally one across the other in cruciform relation which provides a uniformly fiat reinforced twoply ttom, Wal o e tan ula hape of said con i ach said ot o l l yer being dhesi ely unit d oath r the nner all l yer oi sa d bo tom wa l ha in two opposed integral side wall portions being foldedil pr wardly from two substantially parallel corner edges of flanges being in overlapping relation to the corresponding 10 marginal surfaces of the first mentioned folded side wall portions which are integral with the inner bottom wall layer, all of which portions form the whole body side wall of the container, said overlapped margins thereof being adhesively united together in seam forming relationship, the alternate pairs of said side wall forming portions being shaped in contour defined as being of rectangular shape in horizontal cross section upwardly adjacent the corner edges of said bottom wall and being transitorily blended into circular shape adjacent the top periphery edges of 20 said body side wall of the container, said periphery being formed into an outwardly disposed marginally curled helicoidal rim, said rim providing means which reinforces said body side wall to maintain substantially concentric circular shape around the open mouth thereof. 25

7. A cup-like container according to claim 6 wherein the top corner edges of said marginally overlapped seamed side wall portions being encompassed within said curled rim and thereby provide a uniformly level top horizontal plane of the corner edge of the container body side wall and which said encompassed edges within said rim augmenting the stability of said contour shape thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 681,066 Millingar Aug. 20, 1901 881,785 Flora Mar. 10, 1908 2,016,434 Huntley Oct. 8, 1935 2,032,343 Arthur Mar. 3, 1936 2,120,899 Moore June 14, 1938 2,234,167 Hothersall Mar. 11, 1941 2,240,599 Amberg May 6, 1941 2,316,150 Amberg Apr. 13, 1943 2,568,697 Amberg Sept. 25, 1951 2,575,386 King Nov. 20, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 336,004 Italy Feb. 11, 1936 804,751 Germany Apr. .30, 1951 

